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发帖数: 38403 | 1 Theophilus, Gospel in hand, stands triumphantly atop the Serapeum in 391
The Serapeum in Alexandria was destroyed by a Christian crowd or Roman
soldiers in 391. Two conflicting accounts for the context of the
destruction of the Serapeum exist.
A film called Agora (film) was released in 2009 depicting these and
other event, with semi-historical accuracy .
According to early Christian sources,[clarification needed] bishop
Theophilus of Alexandria was Nicene patriarch when the decrees of
emperor Theodosius I forbade public observances of any rites but
Christian. Theodosius I had progressively made (year 389) the sacred
feasts of other faiths into workdays , forbidden public sacrifices,
closed temples, and colluded in acts of local violence by Christians
against major cult sites. The decree promulgated in 391 that "no one is
to go to the sanctuaries, [or] walk through the temples" resulted in the
abandonment of many temples throughout the Empire, which set the stage
for widespread practice of converting or replacing these sites with
Christian churches.
In Alexandria, Bishop Theophilus obtained legal authority over one such
forcibly abandoned temple of Dionysus, which he intended to turn into a
church. During the renovations, the contents of subterranean spaces
("secret caverns" in the Christian sources) were uncovered and profaned,
which allegedly incited crowds of non-Christians to seek revenge. The
Christians retaliated, as Theophilus withdrew, causing the pagans to
retreat into the Serapeum, still the most imposing of the city's
remaining sanctuaries, and to barricade themselves inside, taking
captured Christians with them.
These sources report that the captives were forced to offer sacrifices
to the banned deities, and that those who refused were tortured (their
shins broken) and ultimately cast into caves that had been built for
blood sacrifices. The trapped pagans plundered the Serapeum (Rufinus &
MacMullen 1984).
A letter was sent by Theodosius to Theophilus, asking him to grant the
offending pagans pardon and calling for the destruction of all pagan
images, suggesting that these were at the origin of the commotion.
Consequently, the Serapeum was levelled by Roman soldiers and monks
called in from the desert, as were the buildings dedicated to the
Egyptian god Canopus. The wave of destruction of non-Christian idols
spread throughout Egypt in the following weeks, as documented by a
marginal illustration on papyrus from a world chronicle written in
Alexandria in the early 5th century, which shows Theophilus in triumph
(illustration, above right); the cult image of Serapis, crowned with the
modius, is visible within the temple at the bottom (MacMullen 1984).
A slightly different version[clarification needed] of this account of
the destruction of the Serapeum begins with Bishop Theophilus closing
down a Mithraeum, rather than the temple of Dionysus, but details of the
ensuing profanation and insinuation of human sacrifices substantially
agree.
An alternate account of the incident is found in writings by Eunapius,
the pagan historian of later Neoplatonism. Here, an unprovoked Christian
mob successfully used military-like tactics to destroy the Serapeum and
steal anything that may have survived the attack. According to Eunapius,
the remains of criminals and slaves, who had been occupying the Serapeum
at the time of the attack, were appropriated by non-Christians, placed
in (surviving) pagan temples, and venerated as martyrs (Turcan, 1996).
Whichever the cause, the destruction of the Serapeum, described by
Christian writers Tyrannius Rufinus and Sozomen, was but the most
spectacular of such conflicts, according to Peter Brown.[6] Several
other ancient and modern authors, instead, have interpreted the
destruction of the Serapeum in Alexandria as representative of the
triumph of Christianity and an example of the attitude of the Christians
towards pagans. However, Peter Brown frames it against a long-term
backdrop of frequent mob violence in the city, where the Greek and
Jewish quarters had fought during four hundred years, since the 1st
century BCE.[7] Also, Eusebius of Caesarea mentions street-fighting in
Alexandria, between Christians and non-Christians, occurring as early as
249 CE. Plus, there is evidence that non-Christians had taken part in
citywide struggles pro and against Athanasius in 341 and 356 CE. Similar
accounts are found in the writings of Socrates of Constantinople. R.
McMullan further reports that, in 363 (almost 30 years earlier), Bishop
George was killed for his repeated acts of pointed outrage, insult, and
pillage of the most sacred treasures of the city.[8] Whatever the prior
events, the Serapeum of Alexandria was not rebuilt.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destruction_of_the_Alexandrian_Serapeum#Des
truction_of_the_Alexandrian_Serapeum | l*****a
发帖数: 38403 | 2 Theophilus, Gospel in hand, stands triumphantly atop the Serapeum in 391 |
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